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I am neither a lawyer, accountant, nor a certified financial planner. If any ideas seem interesting to you here, please discuss them with your professionally licensed advisor before acting upon them. Otherwise, use them at your own risk.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

The Best Bargains in Resort Areas

Convenience and luxury item vendors flock to resort areas. Bottled water can soar to peaks of $3.50 to $6.50 a bottle.

Where can you find and buy everyday items affordably?

Try the local supermarket resort employees use. You may need to take a cab, but it can be a big moneysaver.

You'll find local sauces, snack foods and even trinkets at dramatically reduced prices - 60-75 perfent less in my experience.

Convenience items like razors, toothpaste, etc... Will also be a lot cheeper. I, personally, like to stock up on bottled water, cheese, snacks, milk and sometmes wine. Hotels mark these things up tremendously.

2 comments:

This is true in many places. Walk away from the gate at tourist places and taxis are suddenly "market price" instead of massive tourist markups. I experienced this in the Forbidden City in Beijing: taxis at the rear exit were charging RMB400 (about $50) to get to our hotel. After crossing the street, we got a cab that charged RMB10, or about $1.20. (It helped that I spoke some Mandarin and could figure this out...)

Never buy stuff in hotels, and never eat in the hotel coffee-shop, unless you're eating on the company dime. And even then, the best food is out on the street...

Good comments.I've often found that knowing locals / friends or business colleagues and having them take you around can acclimate you very quickly to the location you're visiting.The tourism trade has very little interest in your acclimation and understand of true local experiences - it's bad for their business - lower's profits. You should be uncomfortable and want constant care / tours/ etc....There is a great series of tour books and a television show broadcast on PBS produced by Rick Steves. I highly recommend his product.Regards,makingourway